Dean’s always been “reasonable,” he’s just an arrogant ass. I recently read through all of Giant Days, and Dean is a very well written character; doubly so because he is so unpleasant without being a threat.

Dean’s the kind of guy who decided at the age of 16 that he really wanted to be 40 and showed up to university with that mission accomplished and was confused as to why everyone else was behaving like teenagers. He is picky, elitest about the things cares about (operating systems, phablets, games), and mostly seems to want to be left alone, except for the occasional expression of admiration from those who aren’t as squared-away as he.

Dean would corner you at a party and talk to you for 45 minutes about the deficiencies of the ext3 file system, completely oblivious to whether or not you cared. But his complaints would be correct, just delivered in the most unappealing way.